Advanced Technology Attachment (ATA) over Ethernet (AoE) network protocol provides simple, high-performance access of SATA (serial ATA) storage devices over Ethernet networks. AoE is used to build storage area networks (SANs) with low-cost, standard technologies. AoE runs on layer 2 Ethernet. AoE does not use Internet Protocol (IP) and it cannot be accessed over the Internet or other IP networks. In this regard it is more comparable to Fibre Channel over Ethernet than iSCSI. ATA encapsulation SATA (and older Parallel ATA) hard drives use the ATA protocol to issue commands, such as read, write, and status. AoE encapsulates those commands inside Ethernet frames and lets them travel over an Ethernet network instead of a SATA or 40-pin ribbon cable. By using an AoE driver, the host operating system is able to access a remote disk as if it were directly attached. The encapsulation of ATA provided by AoE is simple and low-level, allowing the translation to happen either at high performance or inside a small, embedded device, or both.